George Alphonse Temme was born on August 11, 1920, to William and Nora (Hanson) Temme in Geddes, South Dakota. He passed away on September 27, 2018, in Vancouver, Washington. George was raised on a farm and grew up in the Depression and Dust Bowl years. He was very athletic in high school and captained the football, basketball and baseball teams. They were state champions in all three sports for their small town high school. In his senior year of high school, the football team was only scored on once the entire season. Two days after he graduated from high school, he and his sister Liz left South Dakota and drove across country to join their mom and dad and two other siblings who had moved a few months earlier to Vancouver, Washington. Times were tough and he worked hard. It wasn’t long before he went to work at Vancouver Plywood, where he met our mother. They became engaged the day before Pearl Harbor was bombed and married on February 7, 1942. They were married for 75 years. He joined the Army Air Corps in 1943 and spent most of the war years in Pratt, Kansas, on a test flight crew, where they checked out all parts of B-29’s and B-17’s and performed test flights before they went back into service for the war effort. The years after the war were spent raising six kids and improving his work skills. Dad joined the Plumbers and Pipefitters Union in 1952 (Local 26) and became an accomplished welder and pipefitter. He worked construction in the early 50’s helping to build the oil refineries in northern Washington, and then went to work for El Paso Natural Gas/Northwest Pipeline Corporation (now Williams Company) in Battle Ground. He was transferred to Skagit Valley in 1970, where he was the foreman for the maintenance of the pipeline from the Canadian border to Marysville, Washington. He retired from Northwest Pipeline and then worked construction again. Together, he and mom built six houses, including two in Roseburg, Oregon, one each in Battle Ground and Vancouver, and two in Ridgefield. He especially enjoyed the quiet and open space of their 80-acre farm in Ridgefield where they had cattle and hogs. Dad was a quiet man of strong faith and he always had a smile and a kind word for everyone. He would say ”You have to play the cards you’re dealt.”. That was evident in how he dealt with blindness due to macular degeneration for the last 25 years of his life. He loved to sing, especially when he was in assisted living. Two of his favorites in the last years of his life were the South Dakota state song and the Army Air Corps song. Mom and dad lived an active life and they traveled the world together, from Europe to Australia, New Zealand, China and Central America. They also traveled thru most of the United States. He was especially happy that he was able to see where his dad was born in Iowa and where his mother was born in her native Norway. He also liked being able to see where his in-law’s were from in Croatia. They gave each of their children a desire to explore the world. George is survived by five children: George Temme, Jr., Steve Temme (Barbara), Anita Temme, Julie “Luie” Mettler (John) and Gregory ”Pete” Temme (Tanya); nine grandchildren: Jorja Blake, Ben, William and Gabe Temme, Barry and Brian Johnson, Brenda Trent and Katie and Nick Mettler; and sixteen great-grandchildren. He is also survived by his sister, Elizabeth “Liz” Sork; and many nieces and nephews. He was preceded in death by his wife, Julia; son, John; grandson, Ramon Temme; great-granddaughter, Haley Mettler; his parents; and his sisters and brother: Teresa Jaeger, Mary Temme, Bill Temme and Frances Sork. A funeral Mass will be held for George on Friday, October 5, 2018, at Saint Joseph’s Catholic Church, 400 S. Andresen, Vancouver, Washington 98661, at 11:00 a.m. A rosary will be prayed starting at 10:00 a.m. A lunch will be served after the service. Interment will follow at Mother Joseph Cemetery, 1401 E. 29th Street, Vancouver, Washington. Donations may be made to the . Hamilton-Myland Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements. Please sign his guest book @ www.columbian.com/obits.